Banana bread

is not "bread" at all. Why do they label it as such? It should not even be called "cake". 

If I had my way it would not exist. I feel the same way about "carrot cake" and "zucchini (courgette) cake". 

Bananas are not my favourite fruit.  I prefer to eat them plain when they are only just ripe. I do not like them at all when they are very ripe and soft . Yes, I know they are good food. I try very hard not to waste good food. It doesn't mean I need to eat banana bread.

In retirement my mother would make banana bread if there were bananas which had not been eaten by us. She would take it along to whatever meeting she was attending which required cake. If there were no bananas for banana bread she would make cheese scones.   At her funeral her cheese scones were mentioned. The banana bread was not.

My mother was not fond of baking and did very little of it. Her repertoire of recipes was small. This was probably the fault of her family. We are not cake eaters. It may have something to do with the fact that my maternal grandmother made mountains of stodgy sort of cake and puddings and expected us to eat them. "Nana" never understood that, as country kittens from places where fresh fruit was always scarce, we preferred the real treat of an apple from her tree. The Senior Cat's mother, "Grandma", did understand. She would wear cherry "earrings" with us - and then make sure we washed them before we ate them. Apricots fresh from her tree are something I still miss from my childhood.   

Nana made banana bread.  Grandma never did. Grandma would bake but not that often. She could turn out light pastry and sponges along with the best of them but our grandfather preferred a "Granny Smith" apple sprinkled with salt and a slice of  sharp, crumbling cheddar cheese on the side.  Scones came not with jam and cream but butter and cheese or marmalade. Rich, dark, fruit laden Christmas cake was also eaten with cheese. Our grandfather loved cheese as much as he disliked bananas.

Banana bread came up on Twitter yesterday. There was also a "retro" salad recipe with banana in it. This was not, as one would have expected, a fruit salad but a savoury salad. The idea that bananas and mayonnaise would go together - along with assorted salad vegetables - is something I could do without. (I am allergic to mayonnaise so I would not have been able to eat it anyway.) 

I have just mentioned all this to someone else as I put the bin out for tomorrow's collection. They cheerfully reminded me of "the cake made with Allbran" and the "zucchini" and "carrot" cakes and the chocolate cake made with mayonnaise. I once ate a small piece of the latter having been told it was simply chocolate cake. It was an uncomfortable experience and not one I wish to repeat. 

I might make bread again this week - real bread. I can add nuts and seeds to that. Those things do belong in bread. Bananas do not belong.

I'll need to take a sandwich to a meeting on Saturday - but it won't be made with banana bread.